It's a work in progress, but the idea is to give some details on a few of the more interesting types of flown artifact that are offered in the various Space auctions from time to time.

As each person has their own favourite types of item and their own sources of detailed information I'm sure that collectSPACE members will be able to add more details to many of these categories, or indeed correct any errors I may have made on these pages. I will happily try to include any updates as I have time to process them and of course will give due credit for any input. I'd like this site to be something of a cS collective effort.

All constructive feedback is welcome, although I apologize in advance for any delay in replying to people as believe it or not my hobby-time is quite limited.

(The site really does look at its best using FireFox.)

4allmankind

Chris, this is a terrific website you have created here. Thank you for the time you have dedicated thus far to it. I would be glad to assist you with the work as I am aware of some pieces that can be added to your artifact lists. Actually, I see four items that I currently own on your annex lists which is neat to see them documented online as well.

Please write me privately and let's chat on how I can help you with this effort. Very exciting indeed.

contra

Great idea.

gliderpilotuk

I'm speechless. This is a highly professional and innovative concept, Chris, to add to your already impressive sites.

I homed in on the flashlights as I have Slayton's flown flashlight from ASTP. Would love to find a photo of him with it!

I look forward to future developments.

bunnkwio

Awesome site!!! I can't wait for it to grow in leaps and bounds!!

Rick Mulheirn

Thank you Chris for making such a superb resource available; yet another quality site.

spaced out

quote:Originally posted by bunnkwio:I can't wait for it to grow in leaps and bounds!!

Not sure about leaps and bounds... more like occasional small increments.

If I could get my hands on stowage lists prior to Apollo 11 that would be very helpful. The old Odyssey catalogs would also be most welcome as it seems that plenty of flown stuff was sold (or given away) in those days.

As I say, it's a work in progress. I'll post updates here when I manage to produce a new section.

Joel Katzowitz

I'll add my kudos as well, great job on the website.

I emailed you an example of a flown item that I have for your currency category. I am correct in assuming that you're looking for collectors to send you documentation of items they may own?

spaced out

Joel - I'll reply to you fully offsite but my intention is not to document items in private hands as such. Also, I haven't started on the category of flown currency yet, partly because I had the impression it was pretty well covered by Relics of the Space Race.

To some extent my intention with the site was to cover categories of flown items not really mentioned in that great reference guide.

What I am particularly keen on is to fill in some of the gaps in my Annex sections, so if a collector out there has a flown flashlight, pen etc that's not in my annexes, or for which I don't have the serial number noted please send me the details.

For items in private collections I will simply note that it is in a private collection - there's no need to note details of when/where/for how much it was sold (assuming it wasn't in a public auction). If the item is detailed on a public webpage I will happily add a link to that page too.

Spacefest

Well I'm impressed! Exhaustive yet concise. I had no idea someone was watching Astro-Auction, and documenting sales. Amazing resource.

One thing I noticed - The McDivitt spoon was resold at Heritage. We sold it to the consignor before-at a higher price.

spaced out

Kim, I've updated the entry to note that it first appeared on Astro-Auction. I only managed to note a few of the artifacts from McDivitt and Evans when they were selling their personal flight equipment. Great stuff, but sadly I had no buying funds at the time.

I sure hope you manage to persuade another astronaut to open a garage sale on Astro-Auction sometime in the future. There are still quite a few who never seem to have sold any stuff from their flights.

spaced out

I've just uploaded a new page on my Flown Space Collectibles site, dedicated to the subject of Robbins medallions from the Apollo-era.

I have to thank Jay Rubin for persuading me to cover the subject on my site and for helping researching the data for the annex, which covers all identifiable Robbins medallion sales from the major space auctions of the last 18 years. This covers nearly 300 medallions in total.

4allmankind

It looks great Chris.

One note - This list is not 'all' of the medallions that have publicly sold, but it is certainly safe to assume it is the great majority. If anyone owns a catalog that is not noted in the annex, please let Chris know the medallions (if any) that sold in that sale for inclusion in the page.

Thanks, it was fun doing the work. Hopefully it helps some of you interested in Robbins.

DCCollector

Until recently it was believed that the Apollo 15 Robbins medallions were struck from silver salvaged from the Spanish 1715 Plate Fleet wrecks, as was the case with some of the Apollo 12 medallions. Apparently, however, the real story is that a small ingot of this silver was carried on the Apollo 15 flight and then added to the melt for the restrike of medallions 128 to 304. Thus only the unflown medallions actually contain this treasure silver.

Do I read this correctly that the unflown Apollo 15 Robbins medallions contain flown treasure silver?

spaced out

Yes, that's apparently the case. This information is from Howard Weinberger's Final Word article posted on the Heritage Site.

spaced out

For what it's worth I just added a new page to my Flown Space Collectibles site dedicated to the miniature license plates carried by Dave Scott on Apollo 15. This was prompted by the example that sold on RR's auction last night.

Any additional information on these beyond what I've already posted would be welcome as always, as would any corrections I need to make.

I also added the Robbins Medallion sales from last night's auction to the annex of the relevant page.

spaced out

I'm happy to announce that the space flown collectible artifacts website has been updated, thanks to input from Howard C. Weinberger, who has expanded on articles he previously produced regarding the Apollo 11 flown covers and Apollo 15 Seiger flown covers to create detailed new pages covering these topics.

With Howard's approval I have also incorporated into the site an article he originally produced in 2008 for the Heritage Auctions website on the Gemini Fliteline medallions.

To Howard's articles I have added my usual annexes which list a significant portion of the Apollo flown covers and Gemini Fliteline medallions sold at auction over the last few years.

Please note that I have also taken this opportunity to move the website onto its own dedicated URL:

Please update your bookmarks and/or links to point to this new location as the old version of the site will be removed shortly.

arjuna

Chris - great! Having a look now. FYI, on my browser (Safari) for some reason the "Ad Choice" ad floats over the two boxes on the right, obscuring the text. I'll send you a screen shot of what it looks like on my end.

This is a browser-compatibility issue, other than that congrats on the new additions to the website.

spaced out

I have verified that it displays correctly in Firefox and Internet Explorer but don't have Safari myself.

I'll have to check the Safari issue when I get home this evening. My apologies to those affected.

I should maybe point out that my sites have always been created using Notepad... which not well known for its cross-browser validation capabilities.

space1

I see the same problem with Firefox version 7.0.1 (I believe).

spaced out

I installed Safari and for me the page displayed fine, likewise on Firefox 7.0.1 but in any case I re-did that page using a different approach which seems to work now for John in Safari.

If you did see problems before please try again and hit reload.

space1

It loads fine for me now.

spaced out

A new page has been added to the guide - a guide to the Apollo 14 flown Franklin Mint Medallions by Howard C. Weinberger.

An article on this subject was originally published by Heritage but this new version has been completely revised and updated by Howard.

MikeSpace

I love the site, the section on beta cloths is the best I've seen on the web.

By the way, the Apollo 13 beta cloth full size unhemmed is 8x8 inches, not 9x9 like the others, no idea why but I have two with registration lines on borders and they are 8x8.

And the ASTP beta cloths unhemmed are 5.5 x 5.5 inches.

I have hemmed Apollo 14, 17, and Skylab II, and flown Apollo 7 and Apollo 14 beta patches if you want images for the site.

Well done!

spaced out

I just added a new page to the site, this one dedicated to the miniature flags carried as mementos by the astronauts in their PPKs.

This is a distinct category of item from the flags carried by NASA in the flag kits and OFKs, which I already covered on a different page.